


AU Pilot Collection

by EdgeHedgeShads



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: AU Concept Chapter, Abuse of trust, Betrayal, During Forces AU, F/M, Forces AU, IPS - Freeform, Infinite Protection Squad, M/M, Naïve Villain, Redemption, Regret, Shame on You Sega, Some Sexual Tension Likely To Ensue, The Jackal Deserves More, frienemies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26701702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdgeHedgeShads/pseuds/EdgeHedgeShads
Summary: I have a lot of ideas, and a lot of the time the bunnies won't focus on what I'm supposed to be doing until I get the basics down. Sometimes, that even becomes a pilot chapter, and I'd like to share those proof of concepts for a quick read. If you like one, left me know; it might be my next fic once the Noir series concludes!
Kudos: 2





	AU Pilot Collection

**Author's Note:**

> Forces AU  
> Infinite may be bitter, but he may also have bitten off more than he can chew. Will it end so swiftly? Or is there time for redemption?  
> \- no cemented pairings yet  
> \- infinite/shadow comaradare  
> \- AU phantom ruby character  
> \- cruelty and depictions of violence

**The Men We Became (Working Title)**

Taking the world had been easy, even with the Doctor bumbling around behind him with his laboriously slow machines setting fires and destroying structures. Eggman seemed to take more joy in destroying than conquering but honestly, Infinite couldn’t care less; the power he wielded was well beyond what the maniacal human could ever hope to muster, let alone overcome. Unwittingly, Eggman had handed over perhaps the most destructive force to exist on Mobius’ soil. The power to create and destroy, to manipulate and shape the world as he saw fit with illusions so powerful, they could permanently maim or kill his targets. The scarred jackal beneath his sinister mask was simply biding his time, allowing Eggman to do the bulk of the legwork. Once the world was taken and ripe for the picking, he’d slam that crazy old man into the nearest sun, take control of the Mobians left alive to cower beneath his feet and step on those fools who dared to stand in his path.

His destructive spree had begun with the cause for his disdain for Mobian kind, the GUN agent and leader of their most notorious unit, Team Dark; Shadow the Hedgehog. Had he minded his own business or even shown the jackal and his Squad a semblance of respect, Infinite would never have taken Eggman up on his offer of power. They ran into each other only twice beforehand, but both instances had been memorable, their first seeing the then-mercenary being swept aside like garbage and the second almost taking out his eye. Moreover, Shadow and his team wiped out his entire Squad, leaving them scattered about the desert for Eggman to scoop into the trash before insulting Infinite’s abilities as the Ultimate Mercenary to his face.

_ Weak _ . A word that had haunted him since birth, then another.  _ Pathetic. _

Eggman saw something in him. Perhaps it was his refusal to pass out from the pain, or the blood loss as the gash so close to ripping through his eye dripped into the sand. Maybe it was the hardened stare and low growl when told his entire Squad had died, that the very Mobian who had given him his newfound injury and soon-to-become scar had been the one to deliver their final blows. Beneath the facade Infinite had been shattered, but on the surface he swore revenge, and he’ll never forget the gleefully malicious smile that split old Eggman’s lips before he beckoned the jackal into his Egg Carrier for medical attention and a long discussion regarding his future. There had been no drawbacks, as far as the canid could tell. He would claim a power the likes of which no one had witnessed before, to wield both at the Doctor’s demand but also against his own enemy, an indefinite bond of biology to mystical sure to give him an edge against the Freedom Fighters the human was so desperate to be rid off, especially the fabled Sonic the Hedgehog.

He agreed without reservation, blinded by a desire for retribution and the notion he could behave as long as he deemed necessary, then take what the Doctor worked so hard to achieve using the very ability he had gifted. Taking the Phantom Ruby, however, did not go as smoothly as the scientist hoped. According to his notes and the conversation they had afterwards - one that set Infinite’s teeth on edge about their arrangement, but there was no going back now - the jewel was supposed to bond with him on a microphysiological level. It should have integrated itself into his bones, his blood, his organs and brain, but instead the jackal’s immune system had sequestered in his spine what it saw as ‘infection’. Enough that he could access the abilities and use them, but he needed time to perfect it, time Eggman was not willing to give and sent him after Shadow for practice.

The brooding hedgehog had been a fun toy, if short-lived in the grand scheme. Luring Team Dark into the desert with false energy readings was easy using his Phantom Ruby abilities, separating them to isolate Shadow even easier upon realising they had primitive, human-design communication relay devices. Rouge was the easiest to knock out, a simple misdirection into a dead end and a well placed kick to the skull. The robot had been more complicated, requiring a more in-depth illusion to convince it to to shut down indefinitely awaiting urgent repairs. From there it was just Shadow, and while he’d never admit it aloud the hedgehog gave him  _ trouble;  _ the ebony GUN agent had clear and concise patterns of attack to begin with, but as soon as he realised the battle was a lost cause he changed it up, switching from offensive to defensive, then to a new style of offensive, with little to no warning. 

He did help with learning to draw on the Ruby quickly though, and how to block incoming Chaos Spears after a few nicked his flesh, the painful zing through his thigh and forearm a constant reminder of the deaths Shadow inflicted on the jackal’s Squad and a worrying note that the Ruby did not heal wounds, only caused destruction. Regardless of the uphill battle, it was the ebony hedgehog who tired first, lacking the time required to fully heal up from his own powerful gem between intense bouts of movement. A single slip and it was all over, an illusionary rain of imitation Chaos Spears that pierced every artery and organ the jackal could remember from the impromptu anatomy lessons with the Doctor. Leaving his rival exhausted and skewered an inch off the ground to bleed to death, he’d returned to the Death Egg now orbiting the planet bloodied, tired but victorious. 

_ Time to take the planet. _

For someone who’d given the good Doctor so much trouble in the past, Sonic was pitifully easy to overpower while his friend - supposedly a genius but horrendously cowardly in the face of combat - begged the azure to get back up and fight. His little handheld device was unable to discern the power source or its limitations in time and the madman’s nemesis was in captive isolation within the hour. It took only a week for the sociable hedgehog to become a shell of his former self, staring blankly at the far wall when left stimulus-free. It had been too easy to play with Sonic, honestly. He was a rat in a cage, desire to escape and famous wit lost once all sense abandoned him. The hero was not made for solitary, left with his own thoughts and regrets. Infinite could only wonder what he had seen over the years to leave him so susceptible to social deprivation because Sonic didn’t respond to threats or prompts, eventually not even to illusions. He was a blank slate locked in the only prison cell Eggman bothered to build aboard the Death Egg, an ornament the old Human would oven mock and admire even knowing he would not react.

Not understanding his motivations, Infinite had gladly moved onto bringing the planet to its knees by his own hand, allowing the Egg Pawns to assist but causing the majority of the devastation and deaths himself. Homes were demolished and orphanages burned, local libraries and records offices reduced to smoldering husks in between. The air filled with burning ash that singed fur and choked lungs, but Infinite didn’t care. This was what his Squad deserved for their loss; to be remembered in smoke and devastation, for their surviving leader to preserve their memory in a scar upon the world he would then take as his own, in retribution for its poor treatment of them in life. Infinite was inevitable now, indomitable in his quest to get what felt like divine justice for his fallen family. 

These blind and ignorant ants did not deserve the safety and comfort they denied the Jackal Squad, driving them to take up mercenary work.

The resistance effort had been nothing, more fleeing prey, blind leading the blind to slaughter another day, the delay in a victory Infinite knew would come. Thousands died at his feet, tens of thousands more were injured. Slowly, pockets of civilians began to obey the Pawns left to manage them when Infinite left, creating isolated villages of cautiously loyal slaves for robot manufacture. Anyone who dissented, or asked questions, were swiftly taken for ‘training’ and never returned. The inhabitants quickly learned it was safer to follow the rules and not make contact with those outside their citadels. 

It was too easy with Phantom Clones of villains past, too easy without a hero to fight back. Even the little red wolf he let flee from death ended up being a disappointment, never coming back to face him with renewed vigor. By the time six months had passed and Eggman was ready to reveal the final stage of his takeover, Infinite had lost his enthusiasm. For all the pain and death he’d inflicted, his chest was still hollow. His pack, the family he found and kept as his own, remained dead. 

World domination was asinine when he had no one to rule with, and he doubted his pack would approve of being so greedy.

Lamenting poor decisions, Infinite had returned to the Death Egg with the intention of resigning, before he got too deeply involved to back out. The damage he’d done would still stand and he would live as an outcast, but that was nothing new to the mercenary. Despite these sentiment though, he wouldn’t get the chance to voice his regrets. As soon as he materialised on the space centre, the jackal found himself in excruciating pain, weighed down on the spot by surges of electricity so potent and unstable, they could only be powered by Chaos Energy. Squinting around the bridge, it’d quickly become obvious from the restrained ball of blue fur Sonic was the source, the vibrancy of his pelt flickering, darkening so slowly it may be unnoticable to the naked eye. Infinite tries to shout at the human who betrayed his trust, to curse his name to every multiverse in existence, to damn Eggman to Null Space with any power he could muster, but all that passes teeth grit against the pain is a unstable growl, the sound of dissent interrupted by the jolts of electricity coursing through his frame.

With that same maniacal smile, the human presses a button on the arm of his chair. In an instant, metallic pinsers spring from the ground either side of the Chaos Trap, grasp the edges of the Ruby embedded in Infinite’s chest and with no time to prepare for it, yank the gem so hard the jackal is sure it dislocated the nearest rib. This time, sound does pass his lips, but to his utter shame it is a yell of pain and distress. Having the Phantom Ruby forcefully pulled from his flesh and bone is excruciating, every nerve to grow around the powerful object in the last six months alight with blinding, white agony. Tiny illusionary cubes spring up of their own accord in defence of their host only to be extinguished as the Chaos field is increased in potency to manage its effect, but all Infinite notices is the searing pain in his chest; how his lungs and ribs feel like they’re are being ripped from his torso, and the migraine blurring his vision as the neural connections are severed.

Then it's over as suddenly as it began. Once the gem is free of his flesh the energy cuts, allowing the exhausted jackal with electricity still singing through his fur and joints to fall hard onto his side. Infinite can barely see anymore, gaze hazed by pain, but he can hear the Doctor monologuing to himself as he taunts the shuddering hedgehog still strapped to a gurney on the far side of the control room. The former mercenary notes how Eggman doesn’t touch the Phantom Ruby directly, thick leather gloves up to the elbows adorning his arms as he waves the gem before the blue rat’s eyes, mutterin about ‘lost shards’. Sonic doesn’t even react, but the elderly human is enjoying his revenge too much to care as, with a gleeful laugh that only intensifies when the hedgehog screams in pain, plunges the Phantom Ruby deep inside his chest. The crack of ribs is audible, the whimpers of the gem’s new host pitiful as Eggman denies him even basic pain treatment and instead takes his seat to watch, tossing his gloves aside before steepling his fingers beneath his chin.

_ Lost shards…  _

Certain he’s going to be killed if not left for dead anyway, Infinite takes the preoccupation with his enemy to squeeze his eyes shut and focus, to dig as deep inside his biology as possible in search of what he hopes Eggman references. Its minutes so long they seem as if distorted by the Ruby, the pain and blood loss of his chest wound constantly dragging his focus from potential remnants of the Phantom Ruby and back to an acknowledgement of his predicament. Sonic slowly screams himself out, his throat hoarse and crackling until all he can manage is tired whimpers as he convulses with residual pain on the gurney. The jackal tries not to pay attention to his suffering, desperately selfish as he grazes every nerve in his body with his sensitive consciousness, aware his window of opportunity is getting thin. It’s as Eggman cackles and stands from his chair Infinite finally finds something; a nugget of foreign energy in amongst his own Chaos make-up. He latches onto it and wills _anything_ to happen as the moustached menace approaches in the now eerie silence after Sonic passed out to either recover or perish. 

“And what should I do with you?” The human’s tone is almost musical, entertained as the little Mobian sprawled on the floor at his boot tips releases a frustrated whine and scoots weakly away from the scientist he was a fool to trust. “Well isn’t that rude,” Eggman chides, grabbing the jackal by the scruff of the neck and haul him up to eye level, even more amused as Infinite curls his voluminous tail between them and pulls shaking legs to his abdomen, large ears folding in uncertainty and honest fear of this lunatic. “After the opportunities I gave you, a thank you wouldn’t go amiss, you rat. Mobians are so  _ ungrateful. _ ” 

A toothy grin splits his face as he leans in close to the canid, glee in his tone now. “Maybe I’ll keep you for target practice, when old Sonic wakes up. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

The never finds out if it would be for either of them, because in that exact moment his fear and desperation combine with the Latent Ruby energy and activate a teleport, removing the dying jackal from the Doctor’s grip and returning him to Mobius. He rematerialises in an old safe place, the alley behind  _ Momma’s Kitchen _ in Old Metropolis, though right now the streets smell of blood and ash rather than deep-fried chicken and soul food. Whining pitifully for all he’s lost and those he killed in a misguided drive for vengeance, Infinite uses the last of his energy to crawl behind a dumpster to die in peace, passing out from pain and blood loss just moments before an unwanted, familiar face steps into the alley.

**Author's Note:**

> Like this?  
> Come join us on the Noir Discord, were you'll get early access to chapters like this, a small community of thirsty, mad people, and a ton of additional content for the Mobius Noir Files series!
> 
> https://discord.gg/NKxK4Rx


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